SOURCE: "La familia de Pascual Duarte and the Prominence of Fate," in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Vol. VIII, No. 1, January, 1974, pp. 61-7.

In the following essay, Brusette asserts that the importance Cela places on fate in his La familia de Pascual Duarte causes the novel's pessimistic tone.

It is generally agreed that the tone of La familia de Pascual Duarte is one of extreme pessimism. The novel begins with the re-ordering of the events of the life of the protagonist, Pascual, starting with his childhood and ending with his execution. Since the form of the novel is largely first-person memoir, the vision of life of the protagonist-narrator is all the more important. The pessimism of the novel derives essentially from the vision of life of Pascual Duarte, a vision that becomes increasingly leaden with the shadow of fate spreading menacingly across its path. It is the purpose...